Pictures
by Formerly Fabulous
Summary: Hermione draws pictures of the one she loves. Trouble is, that isn't a boy. FF slash, one OC, possible slash, homophobia. My first attempt. UPDATED!
1. Sanaz Arrives

Title: Pictures

Author: Aquiline Lassitude, but it's pronounced Throat-Wobbler Mangrove.

Rating: PG-13 for mature themes and swearing.

Summary: Hermione draws pictures of the one she loves. Trouble is, the one she loves ain't a boy...and it's destroying her. After a rather insane girl comes to Hogwarts, she realizes what she feels isn't wrong. OC, FF slash, homophobia. WARNING! AMERICAN EXCHANGE STUDENT!

* * *

"Attention, all! I know it's been a tumultuous summer, seeing as you are teenagers, but now I'd all like you to stop gossiping about who slept with who and just pay attention to roll call!" 

The class settled down. Flitwick beamed. "Now!" He picked up the register. "Lavender Brown?"

"I'm here!" she sang happily.

"Seamus Finnegan?"

Seamus looked up from his doodling. "Wha?"

"Hermione Granger?"

"Present."

"Sanaz Lutin?"

"Hi-yo."

Everyone's ears perked up at the unfamiliar name, and heads swiveled around to the back of the class.

There was a girl sitting there, with long dreadlocked rainbow-dyed hair and loads of eye makeup and silver knobs where her brow line should be. Her uniform, which was ripped artfully in some places, had "RIP Dimebag Darrell" embroidered on one sleeve in red threads. Her upper lip was painted black and lower lip red. She looked vaguely Middle Eastern.

"Hi," she said, and gave a little wave. "I'm an exchange student."

"Oh, right. Yes. You might notice that Dean Thomas isn't here this year. He went to Salem Co-Ed for Wizards and Witches." Flitwick gave another beaming smile. "Harry Potter?"

Everyone shrugged and turned back, except for Hermione. She viewed Sanaz appreciatively. There wasn't anyone so exotic or arty in the whole of Hogwarts, and she wasn't aware that anybody else in the school liked Damageplan, or mourned when Dime was killed.

Sanaz looked at Hermione's appreciative face and grinned. "It's the hair, right? Always gets looks," she whispered as Flitwick droned on through the roll call. "Whassyer name? You look like a genuine Brit."

"Hermione. Your hair's wicked!" Hermione whispered back. "How long have you had dreads?"

"'Bout a year. The 'rents were pissed when they saw it, but then they started to like them…and then I got the dye job. Excellent name."

"Hell," whispered Hermione approvingly. "You're brave."

"The term begins now!" squeaked Flitwick. "Cease your mutterings, everyone, I know roll is boring, but we've got things to learn! This week we're going to start with the spell _Paruma_, which—"

Hermione watched as Sanaz's hand shot up. Her

"Yes, Miss Lutin?"

"Ms, actually," she said, grinning at the gasps coming from the class. "Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Flitwick, but I think the spell you want… it's pronounced 'Pohruma.' 'Paruma' summons a herd of small flying zebras to come to your aid, although most of the time it backfires and they kill you."

There was a wave of suppressed laughter among the Gryffindors.

"Er. Right, Miss—Ms Lutin, thank you."

Hermione gave a surprised glance to the newly divorced Sanaz. She smiled angelically and began to braid her dreads.

"Right." Flitwick resumed with only a slightly shaken air. "_Pohruma_, er, forces the magical fluxes around the, er, object to be come stretched, therefore _braiding_ the object with its surroundings. Very useful for hiding things. Used by criminals and noblemen alike."

The lesson went on drearily, with Sanaz braiding her hair with one hand and very quickly typing notes into something on top of her desk with the other. Hermione took notes, felt a stare, and realized that Sanaz was looking strangely at the quill and parchment she was scribbling with.

"You use quills?" she mouthed, evidently amazed.

"Er, yes." Hermione looked closely at the thing on Sanaz's desk and realized it was a little typewriter, churning out Post-Its. Odd, that.

Sanaz shook her head in disbelief, flashed another grin, and went back to typing.

Hermione shrugged and continued writing. She of course knew the spell, but thought it prudent to write the notes, just in case Flitwick decided to do notebook checks like her old French teacher used to do.

She was finished long before everyone else, even Sanaz and her typewriter, who was getting into a whispered conversation with Harry. He looked in love with her.

Flitwick excused himself to step out for a bit. He was probably still shell-shocked about having a divorced fifteen-year-old with rainbow hair and loads of piercings correcting him about pronunciations.

As soon as he was out of the room…

Out from under her Charms notebook, Hermione drew her sketchbook, battered and torn. If anyone had seen it they wouldn't be tempted to leaf through it. The spotting of mold on the front cover and the legend EARTH SCIENCE A would deter them.

She hunched over the already-marked page and unhooked the mechanical pencil from the cover. _Skitch-skitch-skitch-skitch-skitch. _

_No, that sucks. _She narrowed her eyes. _Rubrubrubrub. Skitch-skitch-skitch._

_Yes. _It was taking shape, pretty nicely. _Skitch. Skiiii—_

"Whatcha drawin'?"

Hermione closed the book with a slap. Sanaz grinned at her. "What was that? It looked good!"

"Nothing," Hermione chattered nervously.

"It didn't loooook like nothing." Sanaz leaned over. "It was a _girl_."

"Sshhhh…" Hermione warned.

"A girl," Sanaz whispered theatrically, "_with no clothes on_."

"She didn't have clothes on _yet_, I was going to _draw_ them!"

"With penciled hearts and the nipples in place?"

"Quiiiett," hissed Hermione angrily. "Don't say anything more…"

"Oh, don't worry, Brit girl. Why do you think my arranged marriage ended?"

She flashed another toothy smile, stuck out a metal-studded tongue, and cackled softly. Then she sat back in her seat and resumed her note-taking.

Hermione stared at nothing, and then, like a girl devoid of emotion, drew out the book again and stared.

The naked Ginny seemed to wave at her.

* * *

The rest of the day passed uneventfully, up until lunch. Hermione sat down next to Ron and Harry, who were dueling with fake wands, and began to eat her veal pie voraciously. After two months of pizza and popcorn, she needed something healthy to take into her system.

"You're a wolf today, aren't ya?" said Ginny cheerfully, sitting down next to her. "Hey, Hermione!"

"Reverse the sentences, please," Hermione mumbled through a mouthful of food.

Ginny looked blank for a second, then smiled. "Ah, the wit. The searing, spiking wit—have you been watching Python again?"

Hermione grinned. "Jesus, no. After the Spanish Inquisition I decided that the insanity was too much."

_I wonder what she would do if she found out that I drew naked pictures of her during Charms?_

"Graham Chapman in drag for Queen!" came an all-too-familiar voice. Hermione looked up and saw Sanaz.

"Mind if I sit here? The other tables aren't so nice."

"Well. You see. The other tables are—" Ginny began, but was cut off."

"Bitchy. Yeah, I understand." Sanaz peered at Ginny. "Hey, you're that…"

Hermione kicked her artfully.

"—arrgh—never mind."

"Um…who are you?" asked Ron, looking with interest at Sanaz's multicolored dreads.

"Glad you asked! Sanaz Andromeda Lutin, one-half Muslim, one-third Greek, one-third French, from the U. S. of A, exchange student from Salem Co-Ed for Wizards and Witches. I smoke a bit, I've got an international driver's license, and I'm great at playing Quadpot. I got the dreads after an Ani DiFranco concert in Helsinki, and then the color after my husband told me that I didn't look weird enough."

Cue odd looks.

"Oh, yeah, the husband bit, everyone always freaks out after I tell him or her I've been married. Mom put me in a traditional arranged marriage when I was about two, but they caught us both going into a gay bar for teens when I was around thirteen (in different entrances), so we were able to get a divorce on friendly terms. Our moms weren't that happy about it, but _we_ were. Especially him. Slut." She took a huge slice of pie and poked it genially. "What animal did this use to be?"

Ginny, Ron, and Harry stared at her. Hermione shoveled more pie in and gave her A Look.

"Er…you're…" Harry began.

"They're rainbow dreads, kids. Rainbow." She smiled. "You got a GSA here?"

"A what?" Ron mumbled. His dreams of having hot sex with Sanaz were shattered, Hermione thought.

"Gay Straight Alliance."

"N…o…" said Ginny, in a rather odd voice Hermione thought.

"Well then! I'll have to found one!" Sanaz stuck a bit of crust in her mouth and chewed. "Mmph. Dead animal. Terrifically edible."

Hermione, sensing the attention was firmly fixed on Sanaz, opened the sketchbook under the table and began to sketch, very lightly.

Sanaz continued an animated conversation about American teenager life and magic and got into a lively debate about Quadpot versus Quidditch with Harry and Ron, and started giving Ginny tips on getting dreadlocks.

The bell rang for the next period. Harry, Ron and Ginny dashed off, and Hermione was about to, but Sanaz grabbed her wrist and pulled her close.

"If you ever need a good fuck," she whispered, "I'm open."

Hermione turned bright red.

* * *

…Heh. giggles Next chapter up soon. 


	2. Grins Galore

Wow! Six reviews in one single day, all of them positive! Thank you, everyone! I feel so shiny. Maybe I should start writing more.

To j0: Sanaz is definitely not a self-insertion. I have brown hair, I'm absolutely silent, and I haven't blabbed my orientation out to anyone except to Pete when he tried to kiss me…but that's a different story that I am not going to go into…

To Jezebel: The goddess of Hermione/Ginny fics likes my stuff? Wowzas! Again, I feel shiny!

Ahem.

Chapter two is HERE.

* * *

Hermione sat in the emptied common room after dinner. She had finished the rough sketch of the nude Ginny and was now flipping through her Ancient Runes text (which her sketchbook was under), attempting to find wyrd's symbol. She was pretty sure it was just a blank tile, but better safe than sor—

Light-brown hands grabbed her neck. "Hello, Brit-girl!"

"Yipe!" Hermione sprang off of the couch. "Don't do that to people!"

Sanaz flashed her patented Annoy the Hell Out Of You Grin. "Why not?"

"Because…because…because it's just really damn annoying, that's why!" Hermione snapped, sitting back down and resuming her place. She was right, _wyrd_ was just a blank tile. Pronounced "weird," or "Sanaz."

"So…were you willing to take up on my offer?" Sanaz oozed, taking a notebook out of her bag.

"What offer?" shot Hermione, wishing she'd go away.

"Good fuck whenever you w—ark!" Hermione had pushed the Runes textbook in front of her head. "Why did you do that?"

"Because in this school, it's not exactly smart to go offering lesbian prostitution to the school bookworm with a history of tattletale-ing, okay!"

"But the school bookworm might accept it," purred Sanaz, pushing the book away, "so there's no trouble."

Hermione was getting fed up. "Look, Sanaz, I don't want—"

"You'd put out if I was that little Weasley girl," Sanaz suddenly hissed genially, grabbing Hermione's shoulders. "I saw you drawing her. I saw the way you looked at her. If her…why not me?"

"I don't know you!" Hermione cried. She was beginning to get scared.

"Neither do I, and yet…" Sanaz leaned forward and grinned savagely, a grin that frightened Hermione to the extreme. "I dated a girl for three years. She was a model and training to be an actress and she got a part in a movie with Orlando Bloom. I felt something for her, but it's nothing what I feel for you after six hours. It's like Romeo and Juliet. Come to the balcony, baby."

"Sanaz—please don't…" The light-brown hands were pushing up the top of her uniform.

"You're so beautiful," Sanaz breathed, and pressed down to kiss Hermione.

There was a muffled saying of the password outside, and the portrait began to creak. Sanaz immediately shot up and rearranged her clothes.

"Thanks for the homework help," she said suavely as Ginny walked in. "I gotta go, sorry, Ron wanted to see me about something." She picked up her bag and sauntered toward the portrait hole, giving Ginny one of her savage grins as she walked out. Ginny returned the smile uncertainly.

Hermione stared at nothing. That was _scary._ If Sanaz had been a boy, Hermione probably would have gotten forcibly impregnated.

"You seem spazzed," Ginny commented, sitting next to her on the couch and spreading out her History of Magic essay.

"A minute alone with that nutjob will do that to you," mumbled Hermione.

"Yeah, I know. She's so wired! I think she's on drugs."

"I wouldn't be surprised." _A side effect of drugs is absolute horniness, right?_

Ginny sighed and swept her hair out of the way. "Sorry to be asking you this…but can you help me with my History of Magic essay?"

"Oh, sure." Gratified that the conversation was drawn away from Sanaz, Hermione picked up her runes text and put it away, then began to root about for her History of Magic notebook.

Ginny looked at the notebook under the Runes textbook. "Hey, what's this? I've never seen a dirty book of yours."

"Oh…oh…it's—" Hermione gabbled, but Ginny had already picked it up and was leafing through it.

"These are awesome, Hermione! I never knew you were an artist! This one of Harry just _rocks_…and here's Ron…and here's…" She paused at one page. "Who's—oh—"

Her face turned crimson, then white.

Hermione dropped her books and ran for her dorm.

* * *

If you're wondering why this is short and took so long…I actually wrote about a zillion pages, realized it was crap, went on vacation in Toledo, and then came back, deleted the bad parts, and began to organize the stuff into chapters. I'll try to update in a more timely fashion next time…promise! 


	3. Ohdear

Gah! Sorry about my lack of updating, but with a combination of pneumonia and ideas for original stories, my fanfictions became third priority. Sorry about that! Thank you for all of your wonderful reviews. This will be extra-long!

* * *

Harry eyed the bookshelves, sweat dripping off of his forehead. He wiped a damp hand across his face and sighed, cursing the early September evening heat. It was so hot, and he couldn't pull up his sleeves. If he did, he would reveal the tattoos.

Oh, he doubted anyone would care that he _had_ tattoos. Everyone Muggle-born had tattoos and piercings, it was the new thing. It was what was on the tattoos that would rack people off. He was not going to roll up his sleeves. He refused it.

He noticed Hermione sitting at one of the library tables with some textbooks and grinned. Maybe she could help him study.

He sidled over and sat down next to her. "Hi, Hermione. I was wondering if you could help…if you could…" He noticed her face and blinked.

Hermione, who was usually so cool and collected, emotionless unless something big happened, was red-faced. Her cheeks were streaked with tears, eyes reddened, lips bitten bloody.

"Whoa. What happened to you?"

She broke into a round of almost-quiet tears, attempting to completely silence them by rubbing her eyes and nose.

Harry trawled through Bad Things That Could Happen To Hermione: Bad test grade (not an option here, as it was only two days into the semester), Slytherins Being Evil (probably not; they didn't have fodder yet), Ron being stupid (but Ron had been up in the dorms all evening), PMS (he did _not_ want to go there), family problems…

"Hermione," he repeated kindly, rubbing her back and smiling nervously, "what's wrong?"

"I…can't tell you," she hiccupped, pulling away from him slightly.

"Why not? You tell me everything." Except for Lupin being a werewolf, which caused a bit of a problem, he thought.

"Because you'll hate me."

"What?" Harry was startled. He started adding onto the list of Bad Things That Could Happen To Hermione: She's actually a boy, she's pregnant, she accidentally killed someone over summer break, she's been raped, she was dating Malfoy… "I won't hate you."

"Yes you will."

"Hermione. I guarantee that whatever it is that's bothering you, I will not hate you. Unless, of course, you are dating Draco Malfoy, in which case I will hate you until you break up with him and bring me one of his testicles as proof."

She smiled briefly at that, but her face quickly returned to the unhappy, salt-streaked shadow that it was before. "You'll hate me. I know you will. Ginny hates me."

Harry blinked. "Why does Ginny hate you?"

"Because I don't hate her."

Harry prodded this phrase, dissected it thoroughly in his mind, and still had absolutely no idea what it meant. "What?"

Hermione muttered something along the lines of "typical male" and started to hum.

Harry knew the tune—he had bought the bootleg CD used at RadWorld and had endured a lot of taunting from Dudley for it, though later he had caught Dudley jamming around to a remix of Track 2. It was the Russian version of t.A.t.U's All The Things She Said.

"Oh, okay. You're an L word. Is that it?" He undid the buttons on his sleeves and rolled them up so Hermione could get a good look at his tattoos.

Hermione blinked at them. "Er…is that Ron there?"

Harry blushed. "Um…Yes."

"Is…is that what I think it is?"

He checked where she was staring. "Probably not."

"Good Lord." She tried to hold in a snort of laughter.

"Right. I don't hate you because of that. Now. Why are you crying?" He buttoned his sleeves back up and got ready for some juicy details.

Hermione's face immediately darkened. She glared down at the tabletop. "Sanaz."

"Sanaz? That weirdo American? I like her. Bit odd, but—umm…" Harry was silenced by a fresh round of tears. "Um…Did something happen?"

"Let me put it this way. If she was male and Ginny hadn't come in, I'd be pregnant," Hermione said savagely, staring angrily at the table as if the wood personally offended her.

"_What_? She—good GOD! Tell someone, for Chrissakes!" Harry was horrified. He mentally ticked off Rape on his Bad Things That Could Have Happened to Hermione List. He also added Attack By Strange Student and ticked that one off too.

"I _can't_ tell someone! You don't say that a girl sexually assaulted you if you're a girl! It'll spread around school like wildfire and everyone will just say you'd been having hot sex with her, and for god's sake Sanaz will encourage the damn rumor!" Hermione was shout-whispering, this being a library, but she looked angry as all hell.

"Jeesusss…" Harry wiped his forehead, and then remembered something. "Where does Ginny come into this?"

"Well…" Hermione munched her lips, causing more blood. "Um. I. I um. I'm. I…"

"Yes, yes, I got that part, but…how does she get in between you and Sanaz?"

"I'm an artist," she confessed tinnily. "Sanaz saw me drawing a…a…a, well, naked picture of her this morning, so after dinner she went after me and told me that she would be much bettor for me than Ginny, because she was already a lesbian, and attacked me. And then the portrait hole opened, Sanaz pretended that she was just studying with me, Ginny picked up my sketchbook and freaked out, I ran down here and then you found me. And. And. And now I don't know what to do, because now Ginny hates me and Sanaz is a scary manipulative bitch and…oh god…" She started to sob.

Harry hugged her until the sobs subsided into sniffles.

"It's all right," he said quietly, looking at her and smiling gently. "I'll be here for you. I don't care what anyone else says, I'll always be here for you. It'll be all right."

He checked the clock. Nine-thirty. They had half an hour to get to the dorm.

"Come on, let's go to bed," he said, helping her up. "We can deal with this in the morning. I'll help you with anything you need help with. Except for Potions."

Hermione sighed. "I guess you're right." She picked up her books and began, with Harry, the long walk up to the dormitories.

* * *

Eight o' clock the next morning, Ginny and Sanaz were nowhere in sight.

Ron was talking to Seamus about something as Hermione slid into her seat and stared at her sausage and crepes.

Harry hadn't shown up yet, which was to be expected. The Quidditch team had an early practice today. Mentally she reviewed her schedule. All advanced classes until lunch, which meant she would be with Sanaz until lunch, and then she would be doing doubles with the rest of the Gryffindors. Oh god. Sanaz all day. She feverently hoped that the girl was sick, or would stay away, or something goddamned _tactful_.

Mail owls swooped into the hall. Hermione ignored all but the two that dropped notes onto her plate.

Wait.

Two?

Ignoring the usual lavender envelope from her mother, Hermione grabbed the crude Spellotape-and-parchment packet and delicately peeled it open.

Two thin sheets fell out.

hermione. i was so stupid to act like that. forgive me. 

The second sheet made her gape.

It was the picture she had drawn of Ginny, except reproduced crudely and messily with pencils and quill. Instead of Ginny's face and short, straight, blood red hair, there were her own back-length hazel waves. To make clear any confusion between the two, there was an arrow and _hermione._

Written under the picture was a time (_noon_) and the words _closed wing of north tower_.

Hermione immediately jumped up and ran towards the Quidditch pitch.

* * *

"Great practice, guys! The only thing I have to fault us with is our harmonics! Other than that, we're all terrific! Showers!"

Harry blew the whistle for the last time and watched the team dissipate. He was just about to follow them when he was hit in the back by one hundred and three pounds of sixteen-year-old lesbian.

"HARRY! HARRY! HARRY! LOOK!" Hermione squealed, waving the notes in his face and squirming with delight.

"I'd love to…if you'd just GET OFFF OF ME!" Harry panted, trying to peel Hermione off. She obliged and handed him her triumph. He examined the papers and his eyes shot up.

"Um. Lunchtime lesbian sex in the old divination place?"

"Yep! Isn't it great?" Hermione was so unbelievably happy. She felt euphoric. If she jumped, she would probably float and fly.

"Is this the picture you were talking about yesterday?"

"Mm-hmm. Ginny took it."

Harry shrugged. "Guess she doesn't hate you." He grinned suddenly. "Congratulations, Hermione. Hope you get lucky."

"Wanna watch?"

"Um. EW. Tattoos?"

"Right."

Hermione grinned, hugged him one last time, and jogged happily back to the castle.

Harry sighed and tried not to wish for Ron.

* * *

Intense makeup. Hair loose. Also loose robes, but sexy lingerie. And nice lipstick that washes off very fast.

Hermione grinned and checked her hair one last time. Smooth and wavy and brown. Nothing difficult. Pretty.

It was 11:55. Quietly, she glanced around and climbed up the ladder to the tower.

The close, dark, atmosphere made her wary at first, but then she started to breathe the incense left over from Div and relaxed. Mmm.

She appraised the walls. They were free of stupid Div posters…beautiful when the stained-glass windows washed over them.

A sound made her turn around.

Her mind went blank.

Sanaz grinned at her.

For the first time Hermione noticed her fangs.

"Hello, darling," she said sweetly, and leapt.


	4. Short and Sour

"Sanaz, you freak, _get off of me!_"

Sanaz caught Hermione's flailing arms and shoved them down with inhuman strength--Hermione cried out in pain.

"Oh for god's sake why are you so surprised, darling? You're a lot less perceptive than I thought you would be...Oh, now there's going to be the stammered 'w-what are y-you' without _thinking..._Dear dear me. I'm a _harpy_, sweetie...do you remember what harpies do?"

Hermione tried to think, distracted by the huge red wings that had suddenly unfurled from Sanaz' back. "King of Crete," she babbled. "They stole all of his food, or something--"

"Mm, no, sweetie...That story is just a coverup for what really happened--harpies taloned him and drank so much that he was barely alive by the time the Argonauts came by. Vampires drink red blood cells, harpies drink plasma. Vampires cause exhaustion, fainting, lung failure, internal bleeding...harpies just cause blood clots and gangrene. The King of Crete had multiple heart attacks."

_Okay, crazy American harpy who's going to give me a heart attack sitting on top of me, grinning. Way not good. _"Get the _fuck_ off of me, Sanaz!"

"Why should I? It's very rarely I get to feed on such young blood...did you wonder why Dean Thomas was sick last week?"

Hermione remembered him being a bit pale. "You _drained him_?"

"Don't be such a drama queen...I just _fed._" Sanaz pushed Hermione's head up, revealing her slim neck. "Mm...lesbian plasma. Best kind."

Hermione shrieked as a long-nailed finger slit open her jugular vein: immediately, Sanaz' mouth latched onto the wound.

She'd read loads of Anne Rice (by _The Vampire Armand_, she was convinced that it was _not_ an aging Catholic woman who wrote them), and it was _definitely_ not like the descriptions of getting bitten. No neck-gasm for her. Instead, there was a horrible sensation as Sanaz separated the plasma from the blood: immediately her limbs felt heavy, her brain fuzzy. Sanaz' tongue was like a huge cold needle that kept diving into the wound and freezing it. As she grew weaker, the harpy on top of her grew stronger.

Finally, Sanaz sat up and grinned her scary grin. "Also unlike vampires, our blood does not have healing properties...if we get cut, we stay cut. That's where wands come in." She brandished the wand: "_Halux_!"

Hermione sat up, panting, arms feeling like they had molten metal flowing through them.

"Mm...and if you get the bright idea of _telling_ anyone...well, that wouldn't be too bright, would it? I'll out you."

Hermione blinked, masaging her neck. "Surely you could think of a worse punishment?"

"Not really, love. The wizarding attitude to homosexuality over here is quite nasty...in fact, over three-quarters of the wizarding homophobic hate crimes reported each year are tossed out of court. No one will care if all the Slytherins start calling you a lesbo whore, because they'll be doing it too."

This was true, Hermione realized. Very, very, true.

"So if you tell anyone then you'll have to quit school early...awright, baby?"

"Yes," managed Hermione.

"Good, I'm glad we understand each other. Buh-bye." She suddenly disappeared--Hermione could hear wings flapping in the gloom of the tower.

Hermione sat there, shaking, tears running down her cheeks. That had happened in under five minutes. God.

She got unsteadily to her feet, nearly tripping over her robe. Angrily she tightened it, cursing her happy gullible manner. _I fell for it. _

She walked slowly to the trapdoor. It was still lunchtime. Food would restore her blood.

Harry was waiting for her at the end of the ladder. "That was fast," he commented.

"Shut up."

Harry was quite a lot more perceptive than she was. "What hap--"

"I said _shut up,_ Harry."

Harry shrugged, perfectly willing to leave it alone.

"I'm really hungry," Hermione mumbled, and strode downstairs.

* * *

Five minutes later, a flushed Ginny Weasley ran up the stairs to the North tower.

One could see a Victoria's Secret bra strap poking off of her shoulder.


End file.
